Franklin Universal Trust (FT) Competitors

Franklin Universal Trust (NYSE:FT) and ASA Gold and Precious Metals (NYSE:ASA) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, media sentiment, earnings, profitability, valuation, dividends and risk.

Is FT or ASA a better dividend stock?

Franklin Universal Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.55 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.3%. ASA Gold and Precious Metals pays an annual dividend of $0.05 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.1%.

Which has more volatility and risk, FT or ASA?

Franklin Universal Trust has a beta of 0.69, indicating that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ASA Gold and Precious Metals has a beta of 0.75, indicating that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is FT or ASA more profitable?

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Franklin Universal Trust	N/A	N/A	N/A
ASA Gold and Precious Metals	N/A	N/A	N/A

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in FT or ASA?

ASA Gold and Precious Metals received 6 more outperform votes than Franklin Universal Trust when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 70.49% of users gave ASA Gold and Precious Metals an outperform vote while only 64.52% of users gave Franklin Universal Trust an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Franklin Universal Trust	Outperform Votes 80 64.52%	Underperform Votes 44 35.48%
ASA Gold and Precious Metals	Outperform Votes 86 70.49%	Underperform Votes 36 29.51%

Which has better earnings and valuation, FT or ASA?

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Franklin Universal Trust	$35.08M	5.40	N/A	N/A	N/A
ASA Gold and Precious Metals	$118.94M	6.09	N/A	N/A	N/A

Does the media favor FT or ASA?

In the previous week, ASA Gold and Precious Metals had 3 more articles in the media than Franklin Universal Trust. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for ASA Gold and Precious Metals and 4 mentions for Franklin Universal Trust. Franklin Universal Trust's average media sentiment score of 1.20 beat ASA Gold and Precious Metals' score of 0.82 indicating that Franklin Universal Trust is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Franklin Universal Trust	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
ASA Gold and Precious Metals	3 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

ASA Gold and Precious Metals beats Franklin Universal Trust on 6 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.